Republicans number just 30 in the 63-seat Senate, yet they reasserted the state's last bastion of GOP and conservative influence.

By MICHAEL GORMLEY
The Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. -- For more than two years, Gov. Andrew Cuomo was unassailable. Democrats and Republicans fought to be called his closest ally and stayed in line while critics kept their mouths shut publicly and Cuomo rode a reformer's wave into Albany.

Now, the Democrat's record-high poll numbers have sunk to their lowest yet and he no longer has the biggest stick governors can wield over legislatures: redistricting. No longer can Cuomo silence all who question his actions in a style his aide once described as operating on two speeds: "Get along and kill."

Yet an objective look at this third legislative year that just ended shows more successes under far tougher conditions than many give him credit for just as the echo chamber of his first two years probably gave him more cheers than he deserved.

"The conventional wisdom out there was this was a far less successful session than the past," said political scientist Doug Muzzio of Baruch College. "But if you look at this session, if you stepped back to the sessions before he became governor, this is a fairly successful session ... and a very successful budget."

After two years of focusing on reducing spending growth and addressing more than $10 billion in deficits, Cuomo brought his liberal base -- in New York and beyond -- to its feet this year. He promised a stronger abortion law, public financing of campaigns, a higher minimum wage and the nation's toughest gun control measure.

He got the minimum wage increased, forced an expansive gun control law one month after the Newtown, Conn., shootings, enacted bold tax-free zones to lure employers and forced schools to adopt the once-unthinkable system of teacher evaluations. He is on the cusp of authorizing four Las Vegas-style casinos to jolt the upstate economy, in a bill he amended to expand video slot machine centers even if voters reject a referendum for full-scale casinos. He resolved decades-old disputes with American Indian tribes, forced by his threat to locate Las Vegas-style casinos near theirs. He also was widely praised for the recovery from Superstorm Sandy while getting President Barack Obama's administration to pick up the tab.

He also had some losses. He failed for a third year to decide whether to allow lucrative gas drilling upstate, and his liberal turn, especially on gun control, cost him the upstate vote.

He pushed hard for a bill to strengthen the right to late-term abortions that had no chance among Senate Republicans from the moment he proposed it. Either cynically or craftily, Cuomo tied the abortion bill to nine other women's issues, including equal pay for equal work, combating discrimination and strengthening prostitution and domestic violence laws.

But Friday, the last day of the session, the Senate blocked a last-ditch effort by Democrats to pass the abortion bill. Then, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said he wouldn't consider the nine other measures but will continue an effort to pass all 10 of Cuomo's proposals.

Cuomo also lost his proposal to lead the nation in using public money in a voluntary system of campaign financing to limit the role of wealthy special interests. Instead, he ordered a powerful Moreland Commission to investigate campaign donations and spending of lawmakers.

Cuomo isn't the only big surprising winner in the 2013 session.

Republicans number just 30 in the 63-seat Senate, yet they reasserted the state's last bastion of GOP and conservative influence.

This year, Republicans were no longer under Cuomo's thumb after he accepted the GOP's redistricting plan, which will protect Republican power in the Senate for the next 10 years.

Senate Republicans struck a deal to share the majority with four breakaway Democrats in the Independent Democratic Conference in an unheard-of bipartisan agreement. And it worked.

Republicans allowed the IDC to raise the minimum wage and let Cuomo's gun control bill pass, giving the IDC under Democrat Jeff Klein another major win.

Republicans were also unscathed by a federal corruption scandal this spring that hit two current Democratic senators and a former Democratic senator, while the Assembly's Democratic majority was snared in a sexual harassment scandal.

"Working with the coalition has been fabulous," said Republican Sen. Thomas Libous of Binghamton, the deputy majority leader. "We worked with (Klein) when we needed to, and I think at the same time we have been able to stand for what the Senate Republicans believe."

Michael Gormley is the Albany, N.Y., Capitol editor for The Associated Press.